Domestic Politics and the Politics of Satellite Telecommunications (Paperback)

In September of 1988, the government of Jamaica heralded its official entry into the information industry with the establishment of the US$2 million Jamaica Digiport International facility. The significance of this announcement was only surpassed by the state's decision to close the domestic sector to competition simultaneously as the global satellite regime and the global market embarked on its own course of liberalization of the sector. This study identifies two powerful sectoral characteristics which facilitated this apparent contradiction. The first was compelling domestic interests in the sector that led to its closing. The second characteristics was the global monopoly Intelsat system. Intelsat's structure and the role played by signatories within the system therefore functioned to protect the status quo of the single global system and to bar the entry of other firms whose activities did not enhance Intelsat's investment goals. Intelsat's leadership served as gatekeeper - preserving the monopoly status quo resulting in increased dominance of the local telecommunications on the domestic politics.